Niloufar Talebi

CREATOR, AUTHOR, STORYTELLER, CONSULTANT, PUBLIC SPEAKER, EDUCATOR, PRODUCER, TRANSLATOR

Niloufar Talebi is a multidisciplinary storyteller. Foundational to her projects are literary texts that she authors, translates, curates, and remixes. 

At the Stanford Continuing Studies, she teaches Creativity and Writing. Previously, she taught undergraduate courses in writing, creativity, literature, and translation at Plymouth State University and Hunter College.

Niloufar is the author of Self-Portrait in Bloom (l’Aleph, March 28, 2019), called “A hybrid wonder” by The Rumpus and “A brutally honest memoir of a life built by words, destroyed by words, rebuilt by words” by New York Times bestselling author Firoozeh Dumas. It breaks with the memoir form and presents a portrait of the Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou and his poetry in her award-winning translation.

Her related opera project, Abraham in Flames (world premiere May 9-12, 2019), in collaboration with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and director Roy Rallo, is part of the multidisciplinary project inspired by the life and work of Ahmad Shamlou that includes Self-Portrait in Bloom.

Niloufar’s TEDxBerkeley talk (March 9, 2019), titled, “On Making Beauty After Agony,” is partly about the self-reinvention it took to create Self-Portrait in Bloom and Abraham in Flames after agonizing obstacles.

Niloufar’s other projects as writer, translator, librettist, creator, director, curator, performer, presenter, and producer include Belonging, ICARUS/RISE, The Persian Rite of Spring, Fire Angels, The Plentiful Peach, Epiphany, The Iranian Literary Festivals 2007 and 2009, The Disinherited, The Investment, and more.

She served as a juror for the 2010 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the San Francisco Arts Commission artist grant, Opera America, and the 2021 Pen Translation Prize.

In 2004, Niloufar founded The Translation Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing Iranian-inspired projects to the world in literary and cultural translation, through which she envisioned, created, and produced several events, art works, and other projects. Since 2010, she has continued that work under the auspices of Niloufar Talebi Projects.

Niloufar’s awards and fellowships include: the James Irvine Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Foundation, Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, Creative Work Fund, Zellerbach Foundation, Christensen Fund, San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, IntersectSF, New Music USA, Sam Mazza Foundation, PARSA Community Foundation, Unique Zan Foundation, Farhang Foundation, and Anonymous, and 5 translation awards: PEN American Center/New York State Council on the Arts anthology prize, the International Center for Writing and Translation award, the Willis Barnstone Translation Prize, and an American Literary Translators Association fellowship, and her translations of Ahmad Shamlou’s poetry were selected for a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Translation Fellow (2015 and 2024).

Niloufar was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar 2021-2022 to the country of Georgia, hosted by Ilia State University. She presented at the Tbilisi International Festival of Literature, the Tbilisi International Book Festival, and the Writers House of Georgia.